82M people in U.S. unisured in 2002-03

MARK SHERMANAssociated Press Writer

Published Wednesday, June 16, 2004

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly 82 million people -- one third of the U.S. population younger than 65 -- lacked health insurance at some point over the past two years and most of those were uninsured for more than nine months, says a study by the private group Families USA.

The problem reaches deep into the middle-class, affects African-Americans and Hispanics disproportionately and is most pronounced among people younger than 25, according to the group's analysis of census data.

The study, released today, found that 8.5 million Texas residents, or 43.4 percent of the non-elderly population there, did not have health insurance -- the highest rate in the country.

Numerous studies have associated a lack of health insurance with poorer health and earlier death, as well as delayed and inadequate medical care.

Ron Pollack, Families USA's executive director, said fast-rising health care costs, a soft labor market in which employers are passing more health costs to workers and reductions in state safety net programs are resulting in substantial increases in the number of uninsured.

The study focused on Americans younger than 65 because older Americans are covered by the federal government's Medicare program.

Typically, the Census Bureau reports the number of uninsured Americans as those without health insurance for the entire year. The bureau reported last September that 43.6 million were uninsured for all of 2002, and updated figures will be released this summer.

But the ranks of the uninsured grows when a longer time span is examined and when also including those who are uninsured for less a year.

Even among families with incomes of $75,000 a year and up, 13.5 million people were without insurance for part of 2002-2003, the study said.

The numbers were especially high for minorities, "disproportionately represented in low-wage jobs and jobs in sectors that are less likely to have health insurance benefits," the report said.

Nearly 60 percent of Hispanics and 43 percent of blacks were uninsured. Among whites, the rate of uninsurance was 23.5 percent.

The numbers are projections developed by the Lewin Group consulting firm based on Census data.

Families USA issued a similar report last year showing that 75 million people were without insurance for part of 2001-2002. But the two reports are not directly comparable because the earlier study relied on some Census information dating back to 1998, executives at the Lewin Group said.